She would ask the Hodges if she could convert Alzy’s main house into a residence for women who were profoundly addicted but committed to recovery. She would house and treat ten at a time. She would call it The Alice Hodge Safe Home. For two years, each resident would have to perform every task of their day in partnership with another. Once these teams of two were in place, they could not be changed unless someone left the program. They would have no choice but to support each other. They had to go everywhere together, even to work. They would share cooking, cleaning, doing laundry. The rules would be absolute, a single offense would trigger a ban for both members with no possibility of reinstatement.

Becky would continue to live at the carriage house, in a supportive role, but the women would have to sustain each other—an experiment in healthy codependency. Their motto would be: No One Goes Alone. Rebecca had brought Stefan her plans for a pilot Safe Home program. What she needed was the wherewithal to finance the first two years while she actively sought public and private funding. After she received word of acceptance for her program from The Healing Project, Becky confided her plans to Alice’s family. She didn’t know if they would even approve of the idea. If they did not, she would withdraw her application and never raise the subject again.

They did approve.

“In fact, they gave me both the main house and the carriage house, outright. They even set up a foundation to pay the taxes. At first, I refused to take it. I said it wasn’t right. They said it was. I said it wasn’t. They said it was. Finally, Alma said, it’s the only right thing. I guess that convinced me. And now, I have to live up to it.”

When she stopped talking, Stefan read her letter out loud.

It said in part:

“My remorse is everlasting. When I could have saved Alice Hodge, I let selfishness rule me. I was literally asleep on the job on the night that my employer and my good friend froze to death in the snow. If you give me the chance, my renewal will be to try to help save someone else, someone who is fighting addiction the way that Alice Hodge fought. Although she lost, not everyone loses. Not every bright light has to go dark. I don’t flatter myself that it will be because of me that another bright light continues to shine, but if I can feel responsible for the smallest part of that light, maybe I will not feel so responsible for what happened to Alice.”

And as he read it, pity washed over me. Rebecca didn’t do something terrible. She just didn’t do something, and something terrible happened.